1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a non-intrusive access control method, and in particular to a non-intrusive access control method for determining whether a tag is permitted based on circumstance identification corresponding to a detection area, the identification of the tag and real-time circumstance information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Non-intrusive access control systems typically employed a detection device, such as an infrared or radio frequency identification (RFID) sensor to track movement of objects into or out of an area, such as a room or through a gate. Access control is the task of assuring that the allowable objects are permitted to stay or move into or out of the detection area. When a disallowed object moves into or out of the detection area, the detection device identifies the object and performs corrective measure, such as triggering an alarm or directing a monitoring system to the detection area for observation by a security guard.
Recently, access control has been directed toward security management of environments where children are present, such as daycare centers, private homes, and the like, because statistically accidents have been a major cause of childhood death. Household environments are particularly susceptible to accidents as they contain numerous potential dangers such as windows, balconies, stairways, kitchens, bathroom and all the objects contained therein, and others.
Space access control systems typically employ infrared sensors or radio frequency identification (RFID) sensors at dangerous locations. In an infrared system, whenever any object enters or passes through the detection area of a sensor, the sensor detects the object and performs a related process. Infrared sensors, however, lack personnel identification capability, hence they react to every person and object.
A RFID system comprises a plurality of tags and RFID readers each used for detecting a certain area. In a conventional RFID system, when a person provided with a tag enters a detection area, the RFID reader reads the identification of the tag and determines whether the person is permitted to enter the area. Each person is assigned a role, the definition of which is stored in the RFID tag. The person's role is identified based on the identification recorded in the provided RFID tag when a user thereof enters a detection area. Then RFID system determines whether that person is allowed according to access control policies.
With role-based access control policies, children may be forbidden to enter a predetermined place such as a detection area, for example. In practice, however, when parents accompany children, the children may be allowed to enter the detection area. Hence, different role-based access control policies may be required for the same detection area under different conditions, and factors such as time, personnel and others which are not included in conventional RFID systems must be considered.
Consequently, conventional RFID systems are not sufficiently flexible as the policies thereof do not include control over dynamic and real time factors of the detection area.
Hence, there is a need for a non-intrusive access control system and method to solve the above described problem of inflexibility in conventional RFID systems.